On the other hand, “in many indigenous cultures, children are immersed in the adult world early on, and they acquire great skills from the experience. They learn to socialise, to do household chores, cook food and master a family’s business.”

Italy and France aren’t examples of the indigenous cultures Lancy and Doucleff are referring to – but Italian and French parents do use this strategy to some extent. As Olivia Young reported for Business Insider, Italian kids drink wine at dinner from an early age and French kids eat the same type of meals that adults eat.

They try to control kids, instead of work with them

Western parents tend to “boss kids around,” Doucleff writes. The Maya and other indigenous cultures, on the other hand, try to collaborate with their children, and guide them.

One expert told Doucleff that some Mayan languages don’t even have a word for “control.”

They keep mum in a ‘box’ instead of getting her help

Many Westerners still subscribe to the belief that a stay-at-home mum (or dad) is better for kids’ development than a parent who works outside the home.

But this is a relatively new development in Western culture, Doucleff writes – and almost unheard of in indigenous cultures. Doucleff learned from Lancy’s book that, “for hundreds of thousands of years, kids have been brought up with a slew of people – grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, the neighbours.” Anthropologists call these people “alloparents” (“allo” means “other”).

Even in cultures that aren’t indigenous, parents often receive support from other members of the community.

In China, parents get help from grandparents, as Jamie Friedlander reported for Business Insider. In fact, grandparents often live with their children and grandchildren. Meanwhile, Young reported that, in The Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, it’s not unusual for mothers to share breast milk with other people’s children.

Doucleff’s observations recall those of Bruce Feiler, in a New York Times article about how millennial parents are turning to the internet for parenting advice, as opposed to friends, family, or neighbours. This phenomenon could be partly a result of the fact that parents today are more isolated than they were in the past.

As one expert told Feiler, “Google is the new grandparent, the new neighbour, the new nanny.”